Using LabVIEW driver for Agilent 34401A

[jharrism2]

Are there instructions available on how to use the LabVIEW driver for the Agilent 34401A Digital Multimeter?

[Ray.R]

Saying that it is straight forward is not what you want to read, right?

ok....

I'm not sure about instructions, but if you installed the driver and opened the library, you will get sub-vi's which have a particular application (purpose).

The best way is to open the sub-vi which appears to be what you want to do and run it. Look at what you are measuring and see if it is useful. Get acquainted with sub-vi's. Soon, you'll combine them into your own vi and you'll prefer using the multimeter through Labview rather than pressing the buttons.

Don't be afraid of experimenting. (with the vi's that is!)

;o)

JLV

[Ray.R]

Well... maybe I skipped a step..

Okay... let's say you installed the driver, what's next...

Open a blank vi.
Go to TOOLS, under INSTRUMENTATION, select Import CVI Instrument Driver.
Choose the HP34401A .fp and it will give you a list of sub-vi. Click OK.

Go into "Instrument IO" (Functions Palette) and look into "Instrument Drivers" (Instr Lib icon) and you should find an icon for the 34401.

Your on your way to success 🐵

Hope this helps.

JLV

[LesHammer]

We are aware of at least 4, and possibly as many as 6 different LabVIEW drivers for this voltmeter.

The 34401 ships with a companion CD that contains the Agilent plug&play driver that can be used with LabVIEW. It also ships with an IVI-COM driver that can also be used with LabVIEW. Both of these drives are supported by Agilent and come complete with example code for common tasks.

The NI library contains a native 34401 driver as well as a c based IVI driver. The native driver has help for each of the instrument functons if you use the F1 help mechanism. I have no experience with the NI IVI driver. They also have a CVI driver that can be converted.

I don't know which driver you are using, so it is difficult to send you an example. We do have some examp
le code for several flavors of the drivers in LabVIEW. Feel free to write us at les.hammer@CompleteTest.com and let us know which flavor of driver you are using.

Les Hammer
Complete Test

[Ray.R]

I download directly from Agilent's website. Try the link below: (I hope not to offend NI people)

http://we.home.agilent.com/cgi-bin/bvpub/agilent/editorial/cp_MiscEditorial.jsp?OID=536917292&NAV_ID=-11250.536880933.03&LANGUAGE_CODE=eng&COUNTRY_CODE=ZZ

JLV

[Ray.R]

I just downloaded the file (again) and followed the steps I described earlier. Works like a charm.

It is a nice icon with red lettering and a tiny picture of the multimeter. Has a 3 Application Examples and a "Getting Started" one which should get you on your way.

Have fun..

JLV

[gagi1]

Hi!

If you are using the 34401a native LabVIEW plug and play driver that ships with LabVIEW, then you should find information in the LabVIEW help (see the attachments). It is always good to start with the Getting Started VI since it provides an example of how to use the 34401A subVIs programmatically.

I hope this helps!

Regards,
Vesna